Liz Cheney on Health Care

Can't salvage any of ObamaCare, but costs are out of control

Q: One of the biggest domestic issues facing this country today is health care reform. Do you think Republicans should emphasize their plans?

CHENEY: Yes. We do need to recognize that health care costs are out of control. There is a need for tort
reform, to purchase insurance across state lines, and to find ways to insure people with pre-existing conditions. I don't think we can salvage any of ObamaCare, and this disaster must be repealed. I would hope that even this president is having a wake-up
call, realizing that the federal government cannot effectively run massive and complicated parts of our economy. Just look at this tax on medical devices. I have a 13-year-old daughter with diabetes that is reliant on a medical device. My father
is alive today because of medical devices. Yet the Democrats want a tax that would create a disincentive for people to invent. This is fundamentally wrong.

Obama knew ObamaCare wouldn't let everyone keep their plan

Q: Do you believe that President Obama knowingly lied when he went around the country and promised, "If you like your insurance plan, you can keep your plan?"

CHENEY: I do. I think there is no way he could not have known the truth.
There was very clearly a situation in which they were thinking, "You know what? The media never holds us accountable. They're not going to hold us accountable here."
He believes and, ultimately, he wants to move to a single-payer program. I think he probably figured that he had to say this in order to get it passed. So, there is no question that he lied, and that we're all paying the price for it now.
And you see real turmoil, frankly, inside the Democratic Party, because now, even Democrats are having to admit what the president said was fundamentally untrue and that this has been a train wreck.

Republicans who compromised on ObamaCare got used by Obama

Q: Sen. Enzi voted against ObamaCare, but you say that's not enough. And you point to the fact that he was a member of the so-called "gang of six" who tried to work out a compromise, unsuccessfully. Isn't that what legislating is about?

CHENEY:
Legislating is about knowing where to draw the line. Certainly, at some point, we all believe in compromise for the good of the nation. So, when the president or his allies say, "Hey, we're going to take over a sixth of the economy,"
Sen. Enzi's response was essentially to say, "OK, let's negotiate about that." The right response would have been: absolutely not. And, frankly, if all of the Republicans had done that at the beginning, had stood their ground and refused to compromise
on this, we probably wouldn't be where we are today. Instead, you have Republicans like Sen. Enzi who gave the president the ability to say, "Hey, this is a bipartisan effort"--when, in fact, it wasn't. It was never intended to be. And they got used.

Urge the repeal of ObamaCare

Speaking to small business owners in Casper, she urged the repeal of ObamaCare and its massive tax burden on the private sector. Speaking to the Chamber of Commerce in Cheyenne, she urged that we reverse
Obama's dangerous cuts in defense spending, which are weakening our national security and threaten the loss of jobs at important bases like Frances E. Warren AFB.

Delaying ObamaCare implementation violates the Constitution

The president has delayed implementing the Affordable Care Act's employer insurance mandate, she said, in violation of the US Constitution. Moreover, he cut a special deal with Congress, giving staffers subsidies on the public's dime to enroll in
ObamaCare. The Democratic and Republican Senatorial Committees have "colluded to keep this deal secret," she said. Members of Congress should pledge to return the subsidies to the US Treasury, she said, as she has previously called upon Enzi to do.